China will apparently being to use North Korea’s Chongjin port within this year.

The Yanbian Daily reported Monday that Yanbian Haihua Import-Export Trade Company based in Jilin Province clinched a deal with North Korean officials on September first in Pyongyang. The report added that the two sides agreed to establish a joint maritime port management body.

Under the deal, North Korea and China will jointly manage for the next 30 years the number three and four wharves of Chongjin Port, which are capable of processing seven million tons of cargo.

The Yanbian Haihua Import-Export Trade Company has already finished repairing the wharves at a cost of 60 million yuan, or some eleven billion won, and plans to begin transportation operations within 2012.

In 2008, China purchased exclusive rights to use the number one wharf of the North Korean port of Rajin, opening a waterway for Chinese ships to travel from regions around the Tumen River to the East Sea.